Image forming apparatus, method, software program, and carrier medium

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes an image processing unit to prepare page-by-page image drawing data by converting image data input to the image forming apparatus, a data storage unit to store the image drawing data prepared by the image processing unit, a page-number obtaining unit to obtain the total number of pages of the image drawing data stored in the data storage unit, an image forming unit to output an image on a recording medium based on the image drawing data, and a data management unit to output the total number of pages and the image drawing data stored in the data storage unit to the image forming unit.

1 . An image forming apparatus, comprising:
 an image processing unit to prepare page-by-page image drawing data by converting image data input to the image forming apparatus;   a data storage unit to store the image drawing data prepared by the image processing unit;   a page-number obtaining unit to obtain the total number of pages of the image drawing data stored in the data storage unit;   an image forming unit to output an image on a recording medium based on the image drawing data; and   a data management unit to output the total number of pages and the image drawing data stored in the data storage unit to the image forming unit.   
     
     
         2 . The image forming apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising a power saving unit to shift the image forming apparatus to a reduced-power mode that reduces power supply to one or more devices used for an image forming process upon completing output of an image of the last page of the image drawing data,
 wherein the image forming unit manages the number of image forming pages based on the total number of pages received from the data management unit.   
     
     
         3 . A method of controlling image formation by an image forming apparatus, comprising the steps of:
 converting image data, input to the image forming apparatus, to image drawing data page by page;   storing the image drawing data to a data storage unit;   obtaining the total number of pages of the image drawing data stored in the data storage unit;   transmitting the total number of pages and the image drawing data stored in the data storage unit to an image forming device for output;   outputting an image on a recording medium based the image drawing data using the image forming device;   managing the number of image forming pages at the image outputting step based on the total number of pages; and   shifting the image forming apparatus to a reduced-power mode upon completing output of an image of the last page of the image drawing data at the outputting step to reduce power supply to one or more devices used in the outputting step.   
     
     
         4 . A non-transitory computer readable carrier medium storing a program for executing a method of controlling image formation by an image forming apparatus, which when executed causes a computer to perform the method of controlling image formation, the method comprising the steps of:
 converting image data, input to the image forming apparatus, to image drawing data page-by-page;   storing the image drawing data to a data storage unit;   obtaining the total number of pages of the image drawing data stored in the data storage unit;   transmitting the total number of pages and the image drawing data stored in the data storage unit to an image forming device for output;   outputting an image on a recording medium based the image drawing data using the image forming device;   managing the number of image forming pages at the image outputting step based on the total number of pages; and   shifting the image forming apparatus to a reduced-power mode upon completing output of an image of the last page of the image drawing data at the outputting step to reduce power supply to one or more devices used in the outputting step.